For the majority of people, Viktor Arvidsson was considered the Oilers' marquee signing of the offseason, expected to boost the top six. However, he has instead proven to be a disappointment so far in Edmonton.
Arvidsson had recently missed 15 games for the Oilers, with an injury which turned out to be more serious than first thought. Not that he'd done much when he was available, entering Sunday night's home contest versus the Ottawa Senators, with just five points in 18 games.
In fairness to the 31-year-old though, it turns out that he'd been playing through the pain barrier prior to his absence, which compromised his productivity. Speaking to the media last Thursday, he said:
"I played through it for probably two and a half weeks and got to a point where I felt like (I was) just gonna hurt myself even more, so we took some time off and made sure it's good to go now. That's why I decided to do that, so I'm ready to go and I wouldn't be back if I weren't healthy."
That's more like it
Based on the evidence of Sunday night, it certainly appears that Arvidsson is indeed healthy again. He had one of his best performances yet for the Oilers and managed it playing on the first line and top powerplay unit, due to the absence of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins through illness.
Arviddson opened the scoring with his third goal of the season in the first period, and then provided the primary assist on Zach Hyman's powerplay goal in the middle frame. It gave the Oilers their second lead of the night at 2-1, as they went on to clinch an important 3-1 victory which also stopped the Senators' season-high six-game winning streak.
When it was all said and done, Arviddson was cheered back onto the ice by the fans as he was awarded the First Star of the Game. It was well deserved, in just his second multi-point game as a member of the Edmonton Oilers. (He had three assists back in October, in a 4-0 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins.)
Just to be clear, the 2014 fourth round draft pick wasn't flawless on the night, as he made a few mistakes which arguably could have been avoided. Overall however, this was still a tremendous performance which the Oilers and their fans will be hoping is a sign of things to come.
Knoblauch praises Arvidsson
Postgame, Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch was complimentary of Arvidsson and obviously happy with his contributions. As per Jamie Umbach of NHL.com, he said:
"He put it in the back of the net, so that was nice. He made some nice plays and he's typically been a guy that produces and can play with top talent. This weekend we were playing three-in-four and we didn't want to overuse him. He played the majority of the first game on the fourth line, moved up (to the) third line in the second game, and then with the illness to Nuge, he can certainly fill in that role."
As for Arvidsson himself, he was understated about his contributions on the night, instead preferring to focus on the team's success as a whole. Again as per Umbach, he said:
"I just tried to play my game and play with the puck and work hard. I think we created a lot of chances."
In respect of the team's aforementioned success as a whole, the Oilers are on a roll as they now look forward to four days off for Christmas. They've won eight of nine and 11 of 13, and sit in fourth place in the Western Conference as of Monday morning.
For all the Oilers' success of late, one of the main asks still, is for more depth scoring from the forwards. If Sunday night is any indication, Arvidsson is ready to help with this moving forward.